Can Blender export to the COLLADA format?
I use Blender builds from the irie PPA, and I have it by default:

Installing from the PPA:

Add the PPA: ppa:irie/blender (sudo add-apt-repository ppa:irie/blender)
Update your sources (Ubuntu Software Center does this automatically, but you will need to do it manually if adding from the command line). (sudo apt-get update)
Install blender (this package is 2.6x from git) (sudo apt-get install blender)

More info: https://askubuntu.com/questions/169542/how-do-i-install-the-latest-blender-3d-builds-from-a-ppa

Collada support is enabled and available in these builds.